Living on the Edge
by GenericWriter1
Summary: Ryder(OC) had always been someone to rely on luck. He fought alongside Jack’s vault Hunters, and didn’t stick around once Jack went crazy. Now 4 years after Elpis, Ryder’s past is catching up with him, both before and after Jack. With people depending on him, he must figure out who he can trust, and how much he’s willing to risk for one more Vault.
1. Prologue

**_So this is a new story._**

**_Welcome to my Borderlands Story, featuring NO Spider-Man character for once, I know some people are relived. This is gonna to be my first story that features an OC and is only one fandom. And before we really start the story, quick things about the Story._**

_1) __Features Characters from Borderlands the pre-sequel and Tales from the borderlands (Nisha, Jack's double Timothy, and Wilhelm are alive/Fiona and Rhys are in the story too)_

**_2) The OC's backstory will be told throughout the story, rather than just one chapter dedicated to it._**

**_And 3) Explosions?_**

**Somewhere on Pandora**

Ryder and the other racers were getting ready at the starting line. He could never shy away from a death race and seeing how it was no holds barred, he could use the grappling hook he's been trying to fix for the longest. He got his bike ready for the race when his sponsor for said race was walking towards him. The sponsor being Scooter himself.

"Ready to get this show on the road?" Scooter asked in his southern accent.

Ryder nodded his head and put on his goggles and face mask. "Just make sure you know the actual amount that we're getting paid."

"Of course man, I'm always reliable. I fixed up ya bike didn't I?" He had to admit that Scooter was gifted with mechanical prowess, as his bike started as a frame. Now it's viable to compete in a death race.

"Now don't you worry about the money. You win, you get paid, and we'll go to Moxxi's to celebrate." Scooter walked away as the race began to start. Ryder looked around at the competitors and saw that most of them were either Psychos or Bandits trying to feed whatever habitat they needed. A speaker turned on and a voice emerged from it.

"WELCOME TO THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LEGENDARY SPORT, KNOWN AS DEATH RACING. TODAY I'M YOUR ANNOUNCER, MR. TORGUE!" Ryder groaned as he heard Torgue yell through the Speaker, seeing as it was already broken.

"ARE THE RACERS READY TO PUT THE PEDAL TO THE METAL? JUST KIDDING, I DON'T GIVE TWO SHITS IF YOU'RE READY OR NOT, TIME FOR DEATH, EXPLOSIONS, AND A WINNER. GO, GO, GO." Torgue said. And with that notion, everyone was off.

Ryder maintained a 2nd place lead and was holding it for a while. He kept his wits about him, as anything goes in a death race. He was prepared to take 1st place when a psycho was next to him with his knife pulled out.

"Meat bicycle not fast enough, need your blood as fuel." The psycho said as he swung his knife. Ryder leaned into his handlebars to narrowly avoid the knife and kicked the psycho off his bike. He looked back to see the psycho tumbling through the sands they were driving on and for him to get ran over by a buggy.

_"Thank God for that." _Ryder thought as he proceeded to take 1st Place. He shot the lead person with his grappling hook and tethered them to the ground, yanking the old leader off his sandskiff. The sandskiff, with no driver, started to spin uncontrollably. Eventually it flipped and headed back towards Ryder.

"Please work, please work, please work." Ryder said to himself as he slid under the sandskiff with his bike, his head almost hitting the steering wheel of it. He fixed his bike back up and continued to drive in 1st place, with him killing the occasional bandit or Psycho trying to take his lead. With the finish line in sight, he could almost imagine holding the money. He drove past the finish line and stopped his bike as flames on both sides of the finish line came up. Ryder was the winner of this death race.

"Congratulations to the Manliest of Men, the racer extreme, and the MOTHERFUCKING CHAMPION OF THE DEATH RACE, RYDER!" Torgue shouted. WE NOW HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE SECOND AND THIRD PLACE COMPETITORS FOR LEGAL REASONS!" Ryder didn't understand half of what Torgue was talking about, but didn't question it seeing as he was the winner. He leaned against his bike as he waited for the next Two competitors to cross the finish line.

The 2nd place winner was a psycho who looked taller than normal psycho's. He was also a lot more in control of his actions more than others. Ryder knew from the way he drove, he was either pretending to be a psycho or used to be a racer before he went crazy. The 3rd place competitor really caught his eye. It was a woman wearing a cowgirl hat that Ryder had seen before. The way the she dressed was familiar too, as she had on a vest with a t-shirt underneath, a wrap around her right arm, jeans and boots on as well as a choker. She got off her bike and fixed her hat to reveal her hair covering one eye. Ryder knew right away who it was. It was the same girl he went with to Elpis 4 years ago.

"Nisha"

**Pandora, 4 Years Ago.**

"_That's why I'm, Jack, am hiring you."_ Ryder played over the Echo he got from some Hyperion techie a few weeks ago. The Echo told him to come to an abandoned building in the middle of the desert to get to Elpis to find a vault. That was the incentive. The real reason was to regain a space station and defeat the Lost Legion, whoever they were. Not that it mattered to him, he was just in it for the money.

When he walked into the building, he was greeted with a gun to the side of his head.

"Seeing as you're here in this building, you're either a scavenger, or got an Echo saying to come here as well. Which one?" The girl said. To her, she was pointing her gun at a tan man, with unkempt slicked back black hair. He was wearing ripped jeans with a off white button up shirt, dirty hoodie, a single shoulder strap bag, and slim gauntlets on both his wrists.

"You do that to everyone who walks through a door next to you?" Ryder asked. The girl chuckled as she continued to aim the gun.

"Real funny, seeing as I got the gun pointed at you, and you decide to make jokes."

"What can I say? The Echo didn't mention anything about getting held at gunpoint." The girl put her gun back into its holster and Ryder let his hands go down. The girl fixed her hat and spoke. "So Jack sent you a message too, huh? What's so special about you?"

Ryder rolled his eyes. "Well, I compete in every death race I can find, fight in fight clubs, and do the occasional help somebody out for cash, usual merc stuff."

"Think I heard about you. You were the one who won the race that took place on the melting glacier near the outskirts of sanctuary?" The girl asked.

"Guilty as charged." Ryder said with a smile. The girl smirked a bit at his smile. He stuck his hand out. "Ryder"

The girl took his hand and shook it. "Nisha. a.k.a The Bandit who kills Bandits."

"Heard about the both of you." A voice called out. Ryder and Nisha looked towards the source of the voice and saw a woman wearing red combat gear. She had a shield on her back, which Ryder assumed was a special kind of shield.

"And you are?" Nisha asked.

"Athena."

"So what's your story?" Ryder asked.

"Not important." Athena responded. Ryder sighed in defeat as he messed with his gauntlets a bit.

"Not the talkative type, _obviously." _

_"_Heard that." Athena said. Ryder rolled his eyes as he leaned against a wall.

"So who else we waiting for?"

"Us!" A robotic voice said. The three of them turned around to see a CL4P Unit, an exact double of Jack, a older looking guy with a robotic eye, and a lady with much fancier clothing than any of them combined.

"I'm guessing you three are the other people Jack hired to the Vault, and the kill all the Lost Legion." The robot said.

"Please, please, please tell me you can switch your voice. No offense to you, but...the voice. It's-"

"Fucking annoying." Nisha said cutting off Ryder. He smirked a bit, which Nisha noticed.

"Nope. This is my only voice. And while we're talking about me, I am a CL4P Unit, but you can all call me Claptrap."

"I'm Jack's Double, Timothy. Although saying it now, it's probably stupid saying I'm his double." Timothy said as his voice got quieter while he spoke.

"Wilhelm**." **

**"**Well, my butler was eaten on the way here, so I'll introduce myself."

_"Here we go." _Ryder thought to himself.

"I am Lady Aurelia Hammerlock. Pleasure to meet anyone that's not poor."

"This'll be a fun ride. Speaking of which, how we getting to Helios?" Ryder asked.

"In that." Claptrap pointed outside to a rocket that was waiting to be used to fly to space. Ryder smiled a bit as he thought this was more exciting than racing dangerously. Now he was flying dangerously.

"Then let's get going already." Ryder said. Everyone started walking outside to get in the rocket as it got ready to take off.

**Present Day**

Ryder didn't know how long it was since him and Nisha were both on Elpis. Seeing as how she stuck with Jack after he went crazy and he went back to death racing, it was a miracle he found her here of all places. Ryder started to walk towards her. Once he was close enough, someone got in between him and Nisha. It was one of the psychos that was in the race. He had a metal arm for a regular left arm and his mask was darker than the regular psychos around.

"I live for the Rib-Cage slaughter!" The psycho said. Ryder was confused by this, and tried to figure out if the psycho was trying to kill him, trying to befriend him, or both. He decided that if he didn't say anything and kept walking to Nisha, the psycho would settle his love for manslaughter himself. As he walked pass the psycho, he grabs his arm and whispered in his ear.

"_Felix said meet him where it began." _The psycho said. He let go of Ryder and began to blend back in as a psycho before disappearing.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised you're here." Ryder turned around and saw Nisha standing behind, well now in front, of him. He smiled a bit under his mask.

"And I guess I should be surprised you're here." Ryder said. Nisha smiled a bit and they both hugged for a few seconds. "It's been a while after everything on Elpis and with Jack, hasn't it?"

"It has." Nisha said, fixing her hat.

"How'd you even get into the race? I thought the racers were only people who had a sponsor?"

"I have my ways." Nisha said. "Plus one of the racers had a little...accident with a fully loaded revolver after he tried to rob me."

"Could imagine with you Nisha." Ryder said. While they were talking, Torgue came down with a bag of what Ryder assumed was his prize money.

"Congratulations on the race again Ryder Here's your reward." Torgue held out the bag. Ryder took the bag and checked it while Nisha watched over. Ryder lit up when he saw the money, with a bit of Eridium and a Torgue pistol. Ryder closed the bag and put it on his bike as he looked at Torgue.

"Thanks. I'll make sure I blow up lots of Skags." Ryder said sarcastically.

"I hope you do, CAUSE THAT WOULD BE AWESOME AS FUCK!" Torgue yelled as he left, leaving Ryder and Nisha by themselves.

"Now that I lost my hearing again..." Ryder said. "You going anywhere or..."

"Nope. But seeing as you won, you can treat me to a drink." Nisha said.

"That's literally not how it works Nish."

"It is when you're my drinking buddy. Besides, I'm broke." Nisha said. Ryder sighed.

"Fine, get on the bike." Ryder said as he got on his bike.

"And mine?"

"Did you steal it from the guy you shot?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." Nisha said.

"Well if you DID, he probably didn't have a good bike." Ryder said. Nisha rolled her eyes as she got on Ryder's bike.

"I guess. Where we going?"

"Place called The Purple Skag in Hollow Point. Needed to go near there anyway. Got a old friend to catch up with." Ryder said. He revved the handlebar as the bike started.

"Hold on!" Ryder yelled as his bike took off. Nisha held onto Ryder with one arm around his waist and one hand on her hat.

"_Felix wants me to meet with him after all these years I swore not to come back? He either needs my help, or is going to try and kill me."_ Ryder thought to himself.

"_Only one way to find out."_

**_So that's where I'm gonna cut off the chapter. Seeing as this story is random and out of nowhere I don't know how many people are going to care about it, but hopefully well enough to justify me making more chapters. And before any mention of pairings is brought up, I already have an idea of a pairing, but feel free to leave your ideal pairing. With that I hope you guys will enjoy this new story, and until next time._**


	2. Old Relationships

**_It's been awhile on this story, I'll admit. But I've been working on my other story "Inside a Spider's Web." Which you should check out if you haven't, either way, enjoy this chapter._**

**Hollow Point **

When Ryder rode into Hollow Point it looked a lot more run down and broken than it's earlier days. Still, he was taking Nisha to get a drink, and he only knew one bar that was a good enough replacement for Moxxi's.

"The Purple Skag?" Nisha asked.

"It sounds weird, I know. But they don't hold back on the liquor." Ryder said.

"Now I'm interested."

"Anything with alcohol always interest you Nis."

Nisha rolled her eyes. "You know me so well." Ryder parked in front of the bar and made sure the bag of money Torgue gave him was on him at all times. He didn't want to risk the midget psychos trying to kill him while they burnt his money in front of him. Ryder and Nisha walked to the door when they were stopped by the bouncer, who was a fat guy.

"Ehhh, you two. Hold it right there."

"Drunk again Tector?" Ryder asked.

"No. August caught on. I'ma need to see some ID." Tector said.

"You know we're on Pandora right? Only people that carry ID are people who work for Hyperion or used to work for Atlas. Besides, I come here all the time."

"Don't matter. I read in a book you gotta check for ID if you's a bouncer."

"You can read?" Nisha asked.

"You know something lady? I don't like your attitude." Tector said, getting upset.

"Oh yeah? You're really not gonna like me when I got my foot up your-"

"O.K everyone. Let's all relax." Ryder said, putting himself in between Tector and Nisha. "Look Tector, we just came in for some drinks, that's it."

"Like I said, I.D." Tector said. Ryder sighed as he tried to find a way inside. Tector has always been a problem, always stopping half of the locals from coming into the bar. Ryder looked around and had seen a wanted poster from Hyperion for the arrest or death of a certain ex-vault hunter. That person being Nisha.

"_Why would Nisha be wanted by Hyperion when she was banging the damn owner?" _Ryder thought. While he was gonna ask Nisha about it later, he knew it was enough to outsmart Tector.

"Well, my friend right here is on that sign right there." Nisha and Tector both looked to what Ryder meant and both saw the sign.

"_Damnit Ryder." _Nisha said to herself.

"It says bounty..."

"It's just another fancy way of saying VIP. Like how I should be..." Ryder said while trailing off at the end. Tector looked back at the both of them and smiled.

"Well why didn't y'all just say y'all was VIP? Come right on in." Tector said. Ryder gestured with his hands for Nisha to walk in first.

"After you m'lady." Ryder said sarcastically. His response from Nisha was her middle finger as they both walked in. The inside of the bar wasn't anything special. No slots like in Moxxi's bar. Instead there was poker, which was played either for money, erdium, or guns. Although all the players Ryder has ever seen play, they've mostly betted their weapons and died immediately after they leave the bar. He thought about joining multiple times, but didn't want to risk it in case his DNA was no longer in any of the Hyperion reconstruction points.

"Well Ryder, you bought us out here, you can buy us the drinks." Nisha said.

"How thoughtful of you." Ryder said sarcastically as him and Nisha took a seat at the bar. August was behind the bar today, and was sorta happy to see Ryder, and also confused.

"Ryder?" August said. Ryder looked up at him.

"Holy shit, it is you. How you been?" August asked calmly. "Nobody's seen you since you took up that offer on the moon."

"Yeah well I've been doing jobs outside of Sanctuary. Occasional bounty hunting, kill a few bandits for a family, stole some guns..."

"You didn't mention any of that on the way here." Nisha said. August turned his attention away from Peter, to Nisha. She noticed this and started staring back at him while slowly moving her hand towards her gun.

"Who's your friend Ry? She looks familiar. Poster familiar." August asked as he reached for his gun.

"I would appreciate if both of you didn't start a shoot out in a town that has bandits living in it." Ryder said. "This is my old friend Niiiiiiiitasha. Nitasha." Ryder remembered that Nisha still had a bounty on her head, courtesy of Hyperion, although Ryder still didn't know why she had a bounty.

"Nitasha?" August asked.

"Nitasha." Ryder replied back.

"Alright, I'll believe you. But you better not be lying about who she is Ryder. The bar doesn't pay itself."

Ryder pulled out some of the money in his bag and dropped it on the table. "Well I am tonight. Shots for all three of us, whatdda say?"

August smirked a bit as he prepared the shots. "I say you're a smart man." He laid the shots out on the bar. "To your return to Hollow Point!" August almost shouted.

Ryder went with it, as he did kinda miss his hometown. "To my return!"

"To my free shot!" Nisha said as she downed her shot before either August or Ryder got the glass close to their mouths. They shrugged it off as they downed their shots. Ryder winced a bit from the taste of the alcohol, but didn't complain about it.

"Another round of shots August." Ryder said. August complied, and laid out more shots for Ryder and Nisha.

**10 Rounds of shots later.**

Ryder and Nisha were completely hammered. Neither one of them was close to being sober, and August knew this. He made it clear this was their last round, as he feared what they would do if they had more.

"Last shots. Make'em count." August said. Ryder and Nisha both grabbed their shots and struggled to cling their glasses together. They swallowed the last of the alcohol in their glasses and looked at each other.

"You're...drunk..." Ryder said.

"No, you're drunk..." Nisha said. They both got up and immediately all the liquor went to Ryder's head. He stumbled for a bit, until he fell onto of his bag of money and passed out.

**Helios Space Station. (Past)**

"Hellllllloooo? Are you guys not dead?" Ryder woke up with a ringing sound in his ears, and a headache. Courtesy of the assholes who shot down the Spaceship him and the other Vault Hunters were riding in. In front of him was a Claptrap unit that had a blue paint job, different from the one that was with them, if it was still alive.

"Well, it feels like I died." Ryder said as he got up from the ground.

"I think you dropped these, if I'm correct." The Claptrap unit held out both of Ryder's pistols, which were dual Dahl Repeaters, modded to be burst fire without aiming down sights, as it made it so Ryder could, well, dual wield them. He took the pistols in his hands and checked to see if they took any damage.

"_Slight scratches, that's about it." _Ryder said to himself. "And what happened to the rest of my friends scrap bucket?"

"I believe they went this way." The Claptrap pointed towards piles of dead bodies that had different causes of death. Gun shot wounds, slashes, shattered ice, ashes. All thanks to his fellow Vault Hunters. "Follow me."

Ryder listened to the robot and followed guns as he was led to a door that had a destroyed Loader Bot right next to it.

"_We could've gotten a Loader Bot as one of the Vault Hunters, but we got a Claptrap unit instead? Wondering about this Jack guy." _Ryder thought to himself. He turned his attention back to the Claptrap, who was rambling on about something.

"People think robots don't feel pain, but we actually feel pain in slow motion, and in great intensity. This robot died in extreme agony." The door flew open and bullets started to fly out of it. Ryder rolled out the way and took cover behind the wall next to the door. He looked at the Claptrap unit, which was getting ripped to shreds by the barrage of bullets.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH" The Claptrap unit screamed as it died. Ryder felt bad that it died, as it was doing it's job. Whatever that job was. But at the same time, that voice...

"Don't suppose you bunch of friendly faces are the people I came with?" Ryder asked.

"Did it seem like it?!?" One of the unknown shooters yelled.

"You're right." Ryder said as he threw a blind grenade in the hallway the shooters were in. They all scrambled towards the door, but Ryder closed it as the grenade went off, killing everyone inside. He opened it back up to see the remains of 3 Lost Legion soldiers, dead and dismembered from the grenade. He took one of their assault rifles and strapped it to his back as he continued, when he got a in coming call on his Echo-device.

"Hey, now that was brutal. Are you the Vault Hunters I hired?" It was Jack. No doubt about it, mostly because their was a portrait of him when the call was accepted.

"Ryder here, alone, in space, no idea where any one else is." Ryder said sarcastically.

"Ryder! The daredevil extremist/Mercenary. Hope you'll stick around to impress." Jack said.

"IF I don't get thrown out into space by these assholes shooting at me." Ryder said.

"Well the rest of our friends are here, helping keep the Lost Legion off me. Care to help? Not like I'm paying you or anything!" Jack said as he fired a few lasers out of his gauntlets. Ryder heard it, but not through the Echo device. He ran towards the sound and saw Jack shooting a couple of the Lost Legion soldiers advancing on him. He took out one of his pistols and shot two of the soldiers, but the third one got close enough to Jack to punch him square in the Jaw.

"Oooo, that's gotta hurt." Ryder quipped as he shoot the third guy. He holstered his gun and saw the rest of his crew walking into the room from a hallway behind Jack.

"Look! The poorest one of all of you isn't dead!" Aurelia said with a smile. Ryder was half tempted to shoot her, but knew Jack wasn't going to be happy with it.

"Yeah, fuck all of you, by the way. You know, for leaving me there." Ryder responded.

"We all have the same mission to complete. We can't wait for you to catch up." Athena replied back. "Now, can we please get on with it?" Ryder decided to drop it for the time being and ran over to Jack.

"Ugh. You couldn't have shot him before he punched me in my money maker?" Jack asked.

"Whoa Jack. I knew you had a way with words, but if you're mouth is your money maker..." Everyone expect Athena and Jack laughed at Ryder's joke.

"Haha, very funny." Jack said monotone. "Now, if you're all done fucking around, we got a job to do people. Let's get to it-" Jack said before stopping abruptly.

"What? Someone we didn't kill?" Wilhelm asked. As if on cue, a robot crashed down from the ceiling with a woman with a purple light coursing through her body in it. She looked at everyone before her, all of who had their guns pointed.

"Is this your army of Vault Hunters Jack? A bunch of Pandorans?" The woman said.

"One generic villain monologue, coming right up." Ryder quipped. The lady immediately hit Ryder with the robot's arm and threw him threw a door that led to the outside of the station, which had no oxygen field around it. Ryder immediately started gasping for air.

"Son of a bitch!" Jack said.

"I'll get him. You all cover me." Nisha said. Everyone agreed as they started shooting the robot, trying to get the woman to retreat. The last thing Ryder saw before he passed out was Nisha throwing her whip in an attempt to get Ryder.

**Caravan (Present.)**

Ryder woke up to a splitting headache and a poorly stitched blanket over him. He leaned up and noticed he was laying down on a couch. He also panicked when he realized he didn't have his bag of money, his guns, and a lack of Nisha. A voice then arose from across him.

"Missed us Ryder?" Ryder looked up to see his former friends/con crew. Felix, Sasha, and Fiona, who looked conflicted about him being here.

"You know I was gonna come visit, right? You didn't have to kidnap me."

"We didn't kidnap you." Felix said. "We…lent a helping hand."

"By kidnapping me…Where's my stuff?" Ryder asked as he got up. Felix gave him a bit of a smirk.

"It's safe."

"Felix…"

"Alright, alright. Just pulling your leg." Felix threw Ryder his holster with his guns still in them. He put the holster back on as Fiona started to speak up.

"So you were the winner of the Torque Death Race?" Fiona asked.

"I'm not dead, and I'm assuming I still have my bag of money." Ryder said, noticing silence from Felix. "Righhht? Because I would be really, really, really upset if something happened to my money and my friend."

"Your money is safe. Don't worry about that. As for your friend, well that's more complicated."

"What. Happened?"

"Me and Fiona both heard you were at the bar, so we went to say hi to you and we saw a girl with a cowboy hat being chased by some Hyperion scumbags." Sasha said. Ryder smacked himself in the face as he connected the dots, bit by bit.

"She was running from Hyperion. She must've did something to Jack."

"We'll help you find her, but we could use your help with this con we're working on..."

"I told you already Felix, I'm not gonna get caught up in some con that has three different factions gunning for us. Remember the Hodunks and the Zafords?"

"He has a point there Felix. We should've never got involved in that feud." Fiona said in agreement.

"It was a fun two weeks on the run though." Sasha added. Felix rubbed his temples and continued.

"Yes, that wasn't our finest moment. But this con could set us up for life. Way more than your temporary money prizes." Part of Ryder wanted to hear Felix out, but the other part of him wanted nothing to do with this con. He rather spend his time looking for Nisha and then moving on to the next death race.

"I don't know Felix. Kinda grown used to the death races."

"Hard to participate without a bike, now is it?" Felix said smugly.

"You sold my bike?!?"

"Relax. Even a grizzled con man like me wouldn't stoop that low. Your friend took it." Felix said. "Look, even if you don't want to be a part of the con, at least go with Sasha and Fiona and make sure nothing happens to them."

"_Of course he would use Sasha and Fiona to try and get me involved." _Ryder thought to himself. He paced back and forth in the caravan until he made up his mind. "Alright, alright. Fine, I'll help." Ryder said as he caved in to Felix's pleads. He noticed Fiona smile a bit, while Sasha had a huge grin on her face.

"Excellent. We'll go over the plan tomorrow. As for the rest of Today, you might wanna stay in the caravan. Hyperion might be looking for you too." Felix said as he picked up his toolbox.

"When are they not?" Ryder joked. Felix left the caravan, and Sasha followed behind him until it was just Ryder and Fiona in the caravan. Without missing a beat, Fiona ran up to Ryder and held him in a tight embrace. Ryder held her close in return, as he expected it sooner or later.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to see you again, you jackass." Fiona said.

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's been a long few weeks on the road." Ryder said. Fiona moved her head back to face Ryder's face. They stared at each other for a bit until they both locked each other's lips in a kiss. Even though it was a short one, they still both enjoyed it.

"I'm guessing that means we're still going out?" Ryder asked sarcastically. Fiona rolled her eyes as she broke their embrace.

"You're the worst."

"You love it." Ryder said. "So, what's the big plan Felix's setting up?"

"Sasha found out that August is planning to make a deal with a Hyperion executive for a Vault Key in exchange for $10 million dollars. So our plan is to "provide" August with a Vault Key."

"Meaning Felix forged the Key. Does it look like an exact replica of an actual Vault Key?"

"Well you would be the expert on that front." Fiona said with some bitterness in her voice.

"So you are still mad about that trip to the moon…"

"Its just..." Fiona started. "You left abruptly. No final talk, no letter, not even a voice recording. You could've died up there and I wouldn't have even known."

"Well I didn't die. And I don't plan on dying any time soon." Ryder said. "You don't have to worry about that."

"Why is it that I get the feeling that you're lying?"

"Because you're a insecure con-woman?" Ryder said. Fiona smiled a bit while Ryder chuckled. "Relax. I'm not gonna die from a con deal."

"It's not the deal I'm worried about. It's the woman you where with. And how Hyperion is trying to catch her." Fiona said.

"Yeah, I still gotta figure that out." Ryder said. He knew that questions related to Nisha was gonna to come with a lot of second guessing so he quickly changed the subject. "Well, guess I'm sleeping in the caravan again, huh?"

"With someone to cuddle with." Fiona added.

"Nah, you might kick me while I'm sleeping."

"You're a asshole."

Ryder smiled as he laid back down on the couch and lifted the blanket so Fiona could lay down next to him. He put the blanket back down as he put one arm over her, holding her close to him. As he dosed off to sleep, he heard Fiona speak up again.

"Ryder?"

"Yes Fiona?"

"I love you." Fiona said.

"I love you too, Fiona. I love you too."

**_So you guys probably didn't expect a chapter like this, and you probably didn't expect a pairing this early either. But I thought it would be a good try. This is my first story with a OC so I'm really just trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. ALSO, I made an Instagram account for my Fanfics. Yes, I know it would've made more sense to make a Twitter or Facebook, but I didn't. So we all gotta deal with it. If you want to follow me to see posts of fan art that fits with my stories, and suggests ideas for current or new stories, or want a way to interact with me more, my Instagram is genericwriter_1. Hopefully I'll see a few of you guys and gals on there, and until next time._**


	3. Life of the deal

**_So just so there's no confusion, this story is going to follow the story line of Tales from the borderlands, but with some additions as well. Not gonna say what so you guys and gals can enjoy the story. Anyways, enjoy._**

**Hollow point, Morning.**

"Could you guys be anymore hopeless?" Were the words Ryder woke up to. He knew it was Sasha that saw them, although he prayed that Felix wasn't in the caravan yet. Mostly because then he wouldn't hear the end of it. He got up slowly, as Fiona was still half asleep when she was getting up.

"Do you have to be a buzz kill in the morning Sasha?" Fiona asked. "We were comfortable."

"Yeah well as long as Felix doesn't know about you two, I'm your warning sign." Sasha said. "Also he's going to come in in about a minute, so make it look like you two weren't cuddling the whole night."

Ryder and Fiona both fixed their clothes and tried to unwrinkle them. Fiona fixed her hair before putting her hat back on, while Ryder tried his best to keep his hair it's usual messy combed back style. A few moments later, and Felix walked into the Caravan.

"Glad to see you're still here Ryder." Felix said. Ryder rolled his eyes at the statement.

"You told me not to leave because I might be targeted by Hyperion, remember? Or was that another lie?" Ryder asked defensively. He knew that Felix was as slippery as they came, Old Con Men. Even though he was Fiona and Sasha's father figure, he still didn't trust him.

"No lies about you or your friend. Only the one Fiona is telling to August in this deal. But…I could use your help with this Vault Key." Felix said as he pulled out a briefcase from one of the drawers in the caravan. He set it on the table and opened it to show a forged Vault Key. Memories of Handsome Jack's job popped up in his head, but he knew this wasn't the best time to get sentimental.

"It looks like a Vault Key." Ryder said.

"Yeah, well no shit it looks like a Vault Key." Fiona said. "We're asking if it's passable as a Vault Key."

"Well…" Ryder said as he extended his hand towards the Forged Key. Felix grabbed his hand before he touched it.

"Don't. Had to use eridium paint for this, and the paint hasn't dried yet. You touch this…"

"…and my stomach will regret it later. Got it." Ryder said. "Well, as long as he doesn't try to touch it or scan it, it's good."

Felix smiled a bit, which was rare for him to do. He closed the briefcase and handed it to Fiona.

"Remember what I said. Convince August to buy the key. Then at the deal we'll steal the money."

"Got it." Fiona said. Ryder rolled his eyes to what Felix was saying. He knew this plan was going to go to shit, but spared everyone from his complaining.

"Guess I'll see everyone else at the bar." Sasha said. "Ryder, don't do anything stupid."

Ryder smirked a bit. "Me going along with this plan is already stupid enough." Sasha walked out of the caravan, towards the bar. Ryder and Fiona followed suit a few minutes after.

Walking towards the bar, they noticed the usual things Prosperity Junction was known for. Dead bodies, homeless people, and the occasional psycho midgets. One of which got to close to them. They both looked down at it while it unsheathed a knife.

"SMASH THE TEETH! SALT THE WOUNDS!" The psycho midget said. Ryder and Fiona looked at each other for a few seconds in confusion of what to do, until Ryder took it upon himself to punt kick the midget in the face. It didn't fly back, but did knock it out, plus broke it's mask.

"That reminds me. I gotta get a new face mask." Ryder said sarcastically.

"Why exactly do you need one again?" Fiona asked, putting a hand on her hip.

"Seeing as most the death races I perform in are in the desert areas of Pandora, I need something that's not gonna get sand in my eyes. Or mouth."

Fiona smiled a bit. "Figured the kiss we had earlier was weirder than usual."

"Oh, that's how you wanna play it huh?"

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Fiona teased.

"You're so lucky we're on a job right now. Otherwise-"

"Otherwise what?" Fiona said, stepping in front of Ryder, still smiling.

"That's a secret." Ryder then saw Fiona get close to his ear and heard her whisper

_"Maybe you can tell me when we have some more alone time."_ She then moved away from his ear, but not before kissing him on the cheek. "We should probably hurry up a bit now. We already wasted enough time."

"Ehh, you know Felix is gonna be grumpy no matter what." They continued walking to the bar while conversing.

"That's the thing I don't get. What's the deal with you and Felix?" Fiona asked. It was a looming question both Fiona and Sasha wanted Ryder to answer, but he was always vague about it. Even now.

"Like I said before, I'll talk about it when I'm ready." Fiona rolled her eyes in disappointment as they reached the entrance to the bar. Once again, Tector was at the door.

"Hold up you two." Tector said. Ryder immediately closed his eyes and tried to calm down. Fiona saw this and tried to bluff their way through.

"And what seems to be the problem?" Fiona asked.

"Your "friend" here. Leading them Hyperion summbitches here. In this fine establishment."

"You know even Moxxi doesn't go this hard for her bar, right?" Ryder asked.

"Well I'm not Moxxi, now am I?" Tector said. Fiona has never seen Moxxi in person, but remembered seeing a broadcast of when Ryder participated in one of her death races when she still did the whole blood sport owner thing, and got jealous on how touchy feely she was on Ryder when he got first place.

"Look, I'm sorry about that, alright? Didn't know that was going to happen."

"Little late for that, ain't it? They damn near shot up half the bar, and you cheated me and August out of a good bounty."

"You wouldn't know how to cash it in anyways-look, can we just get in please?" Ryder asked. Tector folded his arms and smiled a bit.

"Your friend can." Tector said while gesturing towards Fiona. "You can't." He looked at Ryder. As dumb as Tector was, he was adamant about not letting someone into the bar.

"Wait, what do you mean he can't?" Fiona asked.

"It's alright Fi, I'll just wait outside, alone, defenseless." Ryder said. He saw Tector was looking back at him and Fiona and knew that this was the perfect time to see if his con game was still as good as Fiona or Sasha's. Fiona saw Tector and went along with Ryder's plan.

"B-but what if something happens to you out here?" Fiona said as she started to sound like she was going to cry. "What am I gonna do then?"

Tector was conflicted. He didn't want to let Ryder in after the Hyperion mess, but the girl he was with was about to cry that he wasn't in there with him.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be find." Ryder said. Fiona played along by shoving her face into his shoulder.

"No you won't." Fiona said muffled. "Last time you said that, you got shot and almost died. What if-"

"Alright, alright. I'll let you both into the bar." Tector said. Ryder could've sworn he saw a tear falling from Tector's eye, but that could've just been his imagination. Fiona moved her head back and walked into the bar, still pretending to be a bit sad. Ryder walked in after her and closed the door behind them. They were both immediately greeted by Sasha.

"You guys really gave him the couple routine you guys failed at multiple times?" Sasha asked.

"It works…sometimes…" Fiona said.

"Either way, we're in. What's the details Sasha?"

The three of them gathered by the bar. Normally, August would've been manning the bar, but tonight Sasha was since he was getting the Vault Key from Fiona. Sasha started to describe the plan.

"Alright, the cover story is that Fiona is a archeologist named Lidia Strauss. We're old friends and-"

"How long is this cover story gonna be?" Ryder interrupted. Sasha gave him a look of annoyance.

"Hey, don't get mad at me that August has trust issues." Sasha said.

"How much did you tell him Sasha?" Fiona asked.

"Maybe…a lot…" Sasha said. Fiona rubbed her temples while Ryder sported a smirk and a head shake.

"Look, he told me he's never done a deal like this before. I had to make up something."

"It's…just tell Fiona. I'll blend in and act like some one who isn't named Ryder." Ryder said. Fiona and Sasha nodded as they turned to each to get the full story down pack. Ryder flipped his hood onto his head and sat near a window where he saw the light from the day coming into the entrance of the cave. He focused on it until he started daydreaming about it.

**Helios Space station.**

Ryder woke up to ceiling lights blinding him. Once his eyes adjusted to it, he saw Nisha, Claptrap, and Jack's double hovering over him to see if he was alive.

"He's blinking. He's supposed to be blinking right?" Timothy asked.

"We wanted him alive, so yes." Nisha said. She offered her hand to help Ryder up off the floor, which he took.

"What happened?" Ryder asked while holding his head. He had a raging headache, and figured that was the most tame thing he got considering her survived a spaceship crash and being thrown into the vacuum of space.

"You, my friend, got your shit whipped." Claptrap stated. It didn't help Ryder's ego that he sounded too happy about it.

"The person that threw you into space was Colonel Zarpedon. We don't know much about her except she has a robot and has eridium flowing inside her." Nisha stated.

"And everyone else is where?" As if on cue, a girl with blonde hair, a vest, tank top, cargo pants and boots came from around the corner of the room.

"Thank god you're not dead mate. Would've been a terrible way to start my day." The girl said.

"Sorry that if I died I would've ruined your busy schedule." Ryder said ticked off. He stared down the girl while she stared back. After a few seconds, she broke into a chuckle.

"Geez, I'm just pulling ya leg mate." She extended her arm for a handshake. "Janey Springs."

"Ryder." He extended his hand out to complete the handshake. Once they were done with the handshake, a transmission came up on Ryder's Echo. It was from Jack

"_Ryder? Oh thank god you're not dead. Would've not been a great start to this job, let me tell you that."_

"Seriously, would me dying just fuck up everyone's day?" Ryder asked sarcastically.

"If you have to know…"

"Don't. Wanna. Hear it rust bucket." Ryder said.

"Well, Nisha and Timothy got their Oz kits already. You'll need one too, unless you plan on holding your breath while you're on Elpis." Janey said. The last part caught Ryder off guard.

"Elpis? We were on Helios just a few minutes ago."

"Uh, Ryder?" Nisha started. "You were unconscious for a few hours after Zarpedon threw you into space."

"So where's everyone else?"

"In Concordia." Janey said. "I'm planning to go back over there, but I do need someone to help protect my buggy going over there." Everyone was debating who should stay behind, as they knew Janey would be a good ally to have.

"Seeing as I'm the only one without a Oz kit, I'll stay behind and help Janey." Ryder said. He saw a smile form on Janey's face, and a look of suspicion from Nisha's.

"You sure Ryder?" Nisha asked.

"You wouldn't have brought me here if you didn't trust Janey. Besides, I can handle myself."

"Great. I suggest we head towards Jack now before my programming starts messing up again." Claptrap stated.

"You owe me. Big time." Nisha said. Ryder rolled his eyes at her. The three of them headed towards Concordia, which left Janey and Ryder. Janey headed over to a table to fix an Oz kit for Ryder, while he tried to make conversation.

"Soooo...you just live on the moon by yourself?" Ryder asked as he sat on the end of the table Janey was working on.

"Is this your way of trying to flirt mate? Because it's not working." Janey said.

"I already have a girlfriend." Ryder looked down at the floor while talking about Fiona. His voice trailed off a bit as he said "Not like I really deserve her..."

Janey heard the change in his voice and turned towards Ryder. "Why do you think that?"

"It's, well…" He started messing with his gauntlets. "We got into a argument about this whole job I took. She said words, I said words, and now I gotta see the job through."

"Why's that? Why didn't you just stay with her if was going to cause this much of a problem?"

"We live on Pandora." Ryder said. He saw Janey's face go from confused to a sort of shocked face. "Yeah, not exactly the best place to call a home. I hoped that doing death races would be enough to get us off the planet, but everytime I save up enough for our passage, Hyperion jacks up the prices. So basically we're stuck."

"Sorry to hear that." Janey said. She tried to lighten the mood a bit with a different topic. "Well, do you have any family that could help you guys?"

Ryder chuckled a bit. He knew what Janey was trying to get at. "No, I was raised in Pandora. Only family I know isn't in Pandora is my older brother. He went and joined some military force or mercenary group or something."

"And your parents?"

"Well when I was born, my mother passed away a few days after she gave birth to me. It was just me, my brother, my dad, and his mother. She was honestly the ruler of the house, while my dad did his best to make his two sons men."

"I'm assuming it worked, seeing as you're here with guns and a mission that you're getting paid for." Janey said as she finished the Oz kit. She handed over to Ryder, which he took and attached to his shoulder.

"In a way. He wanted his two golden sons to be generals in the Atlas army, but then came the fall of Atlas. Me and my brother knew that no matter what we did, our father wasn't going to be as happy. He chose to pursue the military life still, and I chose more adrenaline fueled lifestyle. And thanks for the Oz kit by the way."

"Don't mention it." Janey said. "Don't suppose you'd be able to help me get my buggy of supplies to Concordia, would ya?"

"You gave me an Oz kit for a reason." Ryder said sarcastically.

"Don't be a smart ass about it." Janey said smiling. Ryder walked alongside Janey as they walked towards her Buggy. He got into the drivers seat and offered his hand to help her up. She took it as she got into a different seat.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your brother's name?"

Ryder started up the buggy, and as he heard the engine rev up, he looked at Janey and said

"Axton, his name is Axton."

**Purple Skag (Present).**

"You're grabbing my hand." Ryder snapped out of his daydream and looked towards the source of the noise. He turned to see Fiona grabbing August's hand, and the suitcase for the fake Vault Key open.

"It's dangerous August. And I doubt you wanna be in serious pain." Fiona said.

"Are you threatening me?" August asked calmly. Ryder started to reach for his pistols, as he had a gut feeling this was going to turn ugly in a second. But as faith would have it, Sasha intervened and prevent another shootout from happening in the bar.

"Your friend is making me nervous." August said while looking at Sasha.

"She's looking out for you August."

"How do you figure?"

"Ever heard of eridium poisoning?" A look of confusion formed on August's face.

"Can't say I have."

"Well she just saved you from a couple of hours of puking your guts out." Sasha said. August immediately looked at Fiona and looked like he was sort of embarrassed.

"Ah, well thanks. Just say something sooner next time." August said to Fiona. He then got up from his seat and put on a earpiece.

"I'll call up Vasquez. He's been chomping at the bit for this thing." Once August got up, Ryder turned his attention towards Fiona. She noticed he was looking at her direction, and she gave him a nod of confidence to assure him everything was alright. Ryder figured he didn't have to worry about anything else until he heard August mention something about Nisha.

"Look Vasquez, after your people raided my bar to get this Nisha girl, I want ten million dollars...Yes we got her captured...over by Prosperity Junction...we don't have her friend."

"_Prosperity Junction? If they got Nisha there, then they got my bike there too. Hopefully both of which are in one piece." _Ryder thought to himself.

"Yeah? Well you say hi to your-he hung up on me." August said. He turned around to Fiona and took the case with the Vault Key.

"Once we sell this thing, Sasha will contact you to discuss how you're receiving your cut." August said. He then turned around and went upstairs to his office to, more than likely, plan out how the deal will go down. Sasha and Fiona both turned their attention to Ryder, who was trying not to look pissed off about what he heard about Nisha. He got up and left the bar, heading straight to the caravan.

"_Hold on Nisha, I'm coming."_

**_Alright, so I know I didn't upload as much as I should've during the summer, but a lot of stuff was happening. Plus the whole situation with my job, which I am now leaving, but that's not important. Also I'm going to make this announcement with the next chapter of "Inside a Spider's Web", but I'm planning to put that story on hold for a while to focus on this story and my new Cowboy bebop story, which is still in the works. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and until next time._**


	4. New Friends

**_I know I've been slacking with this story, but I keep coming up with story ideas so I'm trying to get all of them down. Anyways, hopefully this you all enjoy this chapter. Enjoy._**

**Prosperity Junction.**

"Have you got visual on the buyers Sasha?" Felix asked. The caravan was parked behind the building, out of view from the buyers and August.

"_Yeah, two Hyperion stooges. They also got, who I'm guessing, is Ryder's friend tied up in a chair."_

"That's Nisha alright. We should be busting her out." Ryder said. "But I wouldn't want to ruin someone's perfectly set up Vault deal, who set up the key the day of the deal."

Felix sighed as he rubbed his eyes. He was getting tired of Ryder's constant nagging. "What do you want from me Ryder?"

"I want my fucking prize money back. Instead, I get played like an idiot to help you pull off a supposed "one last con." when we both know it's not gonna turn out that way."

Fiona, who was sitting with her feet up and her hat over her face, got up quick and tried to calm everyone down. Everyone being Ryder. "Ryder, yelling about it isn't going to change anything."

"Oh, so it's just fuck me, and take my money right?"

"It's not like that."

"So what is it like Fiona?" Their argument was broken up by Sasha, who sounded nervous over the earpiece.

"_Guys, we got a problem."_

"What's the situation?" Ryder asked.

"_One of the Hyperion guys has a echo-eye implant. He scans the key, everything is gonna go to hell."_

"There goes your perfect deal Felix. Exactly like I said."

"Not now Ryder." Felix said. He got up from the driver seat and headed to the chest in the back of the caravan. "We need to make a on the spot EMP device."

"How exactly?" Fiona asked. As soon as she asked, Felix pulled out a small circuit board, and had attached it to a casing, which formed the EMP they needed. He handed it to Fiona.

"Here. Attach it to the case and activate it when he starts scanning it." Felix explained.

"Sure, sure. One question, umm how the hell am I supposed to get it on the case without getting caught?"

"You and Ryder will figure it out. I believe in the both of you." A small smile formed on Felix and Fiona's faces. Ryder had a different reaction.

"Bullshit." He said between a few fake coughs. He got a dirty look from Fiona. He ignored it and left the caravan with her and had one last rebuttal for Felix.

"And Felix? You better make sure my money comes up, and you don't disappear mysteriously." He closed the door before he got a response. Felix drove the caravan away from where he dropped off the both of them. As they looked for a side entrance, Fiona spoke up.

"You know, I'll never understand why you constantly act like a pain in the ass with Felix, get all emotional with me, and become Sasha's best friend when it involves guns."

"Adds to the mystery, don't you think?"

"Yeah, or you're just insane." Fiona said.

"You wouldn't be the first to suggest that. We should find a way into the building. Probably one by all that stacked garbage."

"Lead the way." Fiona gestured her hands towards the heap. The both of them walked towards it and started moving things.

"Can I ask you something Fiona?"

"Go for it."

"What exactly happened with my money?"

"Not this again…" Fiona sighed. "In a few minutes, we're about to make triple of what you won in that race. Hell, you don't have to risk your life racing anymore."

"Fiona, death racing is all I know. Same as being a con-woman is for you. It's second nature. And I am not going back to being a Vault Hunter."

"It can't be that bad…"

"I helped Jack open the Vault on Elpis that made him go crazy." Ryder blurted out. Fiona was taken back by hearing that, but she let him continue.

"After that, he tried destroying this whole planet. I'm not going back into the Vault Hunter gig, and helping someone else rise up into a dictatorship."

Fiona tried reassuring him. "You didn't know he was gonna be a mass murdering psychopath."

"Saying that doesn't help." Ryder said. He pulled the last of the garbage away to reveal a vent. He saw a nearby cart and pushed it under the vent to climb on it. "Hold the cart, I don't feel like falling."

Fiona rolled her eyes, but obliged anyways. Ryder started pulling on the cover of the vent. It got ripped off, and he was met by a weird looking guy on the other side who almost gave him a heart attack.

"Hi!" The random guy yelled. Ryder tripped off the cart and hit the ground, which provoked Fiona to pull her pistol out on the guy. He immediately put his hands up to surrender.

"Whoa, whoa. I didn't mean to frighten you guys."

"Didn't mean to-you just popped out of a vent!" Ryder yelled while getting back to his feet.

"It's pretty cozy in here. But where are my manners? I'm Shade. And you guys are?"

"Getting through." Ryder said as he climbed back up and past Shade. Fiona did the same, as she noticed Ryder pushed through before Shade could say anything in his defense.

"But we were just having such a nice chat." Shade said.

Once they were both further down the vent, Ryder spoke up again. "Fucking weirdo."

"We do live on a planet where a quarter of the population has a fetish for meat." Fiona brought up.

"You do got a point. Anyways, let's just get this EMP on the case and get the money and Nisha out of here."

"And if we can't get here out?"

"We are getting her out. I'm not leaving her to get killed by Hyperion."

"Wasn't her bounty made while Jack was still in power? Would they really still care?"

"Don't know, not risking it."

Before their conversation could continue, Felix came up onto their comms. "_Fiona, Ryder. Are you guys almost at the vent near Sasha?"_

_"_Getting there." Ryder responded.

"_Hurry. Only so long Sasha can keep the charade up."_

"You just keep making me regret helping you with this job, don't you?"

"Regret what job?" Fiona and Ryder both turned around quickly to see Shade right behind them. Uncomfortable so.

"Dude, personal space." Ryder said.

Shade backed up a bit and continued. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"_Doing a good job so far." _Fiona said to herself.

"Hey! You two are looking for the girls? With the hair?"

"I would hope both of them have hair." Ryder said.

"Let me come with you guys. I know a shortcut to the vent."

"The vent only goes one-"

"Sure. You can come. But don't be weird and stay quiet." Fiona chimed in. She glanced at Ryder, who looked extremely confused, but he kept quiet and went with her made up plan.

"Oh boy! I'll be good. I promise."

Ryder rolled his eyes. "Lead the way nutcase." Shade either ignored his comment or didn't care about it. Once they got to the end of the vent, they had a better view of everything going on. Ryder's first notice was the Hyperion guy with a robotic arm. He assumed that was the guy Sasha said had the echo-eye. He then turned his attention to try and find Sasha, but the only person tied up was a girl with a combat helmet on. He figured it must've been another person that had a bounty on their head, courtesy of Hyperion.

"Sasha, we're in position." Fiona said. On cue, Sasha snatched the Vault Key briefcase and started slowing walking backwards towards the vent.

"Sasha, what the hell?!" August asked.

"You can't trust them August. Look at their faces."

"What's wrong with their faces?"

"You can't trust a face like that."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." The Hyperion with glasses said.

"This is a sad duo of Hyperion workers. They don't even have any guards with them." Ryder whispered to Fiona.

"Guess since Jack died, workers benefits went even more down than before. Not that working for Jack was a good benefit."

"You're a con woman, what do you know about workers benefits?"

"Shhhh. She's almost here." Sasha was now backed up as close to the vent as possible without hitting the fan. Fiona waited for a opening in the fan's pattern and put the EMP on the Vault Key briefcase.

"Good job Fiona." Felix said over the comms.

"At least she did something. More than you can say."

Felix went silent after Ryder's comment. Sasha, however, continued on with the con.

"So you're telling me that this Vault will be used to screw over some Hyperion jackass?"

"That's exactly what we're saying." The cyber arm guy said.

"Alright, I'm sold." Sasha brought the case back over to August.

"So what now?" Shade asked. Both Ryder and Fiona rolled their eyes in annoyance of him being there.

"Now we play the quiet game." Fiona said. They turned their attention back to the deal, which was now going bad as August got cold feet.

"Nah, I've made up my mind. The deal's off." August and Sasha were beginning to walk out.

"August wait!" The Hyperion with glasses said. He turned around to his buddy. "Rhys, this is your department. Do something." Rhys nodded and then proceeded to call out August's name.

"Hey August!" He said with authority. Fiona, Ryder, and Shade looked on with suspense. They were disappointed when it ended up with Rhys getting on his knees and begging. "Come on man. Pleeassssse."

August looked at Sasha for her advice. "Dude, $10 million dollars."

"You make a good point." August said. He took the briefcase from Sasha and opened it. Rhys took the Vault Key out and began to scan it, which prompted Fiona to activate the EMP. Rhys's cybernetics were on the fritz. He ended up dropping the key, which made Sasha, Ryder, and Fiona all hold their breaths.

"What happened? What's going on?" Felix asked.

"He…just dropped the key." Ryder said.

"It's a fake." Rhys said. August was behind furious. In amidst the new chaos being formed, there was a faint sound of dubstep that started getting louder and louder. A truck ended up crashing through the billboard next to the building, revealing a band of bandits and psychos and their leader, Bossanova.

"Time we cashed out." Ryder said. He stood up and kicked the center of the fan, breaking it and pushing it down onto August. He jumped over him and rushed to the hostage he had. Once he got closer, he could tell it wasn't Nisha. She had on a combat helmet instead of a Cowboy hat, a armor piece on her left shoulder with a star on it, and dog tags.

"Hey! You wanna help me out instead of staring at me?" The girl said. Ryder obliged and cut her restraints and helped her up. "Thanks."

"No problem. Don't suppose you want to hitch a ride with us? At least till we get to a town."

"Sure." The girl said. "Name's Moze."

"Ryder."

"Sasha, Fiona, Ryder. Come in."

"What's up Felix?"

"I'm bringing the caravan around. Make sure you guys are ready to run."

"You would be the expert at that huh?"

"Now's not the time Ryder. Run." Felix said as he hung up on Ryder. He turned his attention back to Moze.

"Stay close to me, and run like hell." Moze nodded. Ryder started running towards the direction he saw Fiona and Sasha running towards. A few psychos were trying to make their way towards Ryder, but were being shot by a legendary Vault Hunter, the very one who helped kill Handsome Jack, Zer0. He then turned his attention to the bandit leader.

"You know what I'm looking for Bossanova. Tell me where it is." Zer0 said. Ryder didn't stick around to see what would happen after. Both him and Moze kept running towards the caravan and caught up with the rest of his friends.

"Who's this?" Felix asked, looking at Moze.

"Someone who probably shoots better than you. Now can we go?"

"Wait, she's staying with us or…"

"I'll be gone once I'm near a town." Moze said bluntly.

"Problem solved." Ryder said. Everyone got on to see the two Hyperion guys in the caravan, trying to hotwire it.

"You got to be kidding me." Felix said. Both of them turned around and immediately looked terrified. Rhys started to explain.

"Look, this is not at all what it looks like."

"Looks like you and four eyes are trying to hotwire and steal our ride." Ryder said.

"Oh." Rhys said simply. "Then it's exactly what you-"

"YOU LIED TO ME SASHA!" Everyone turned their attention to the door, where August was currently charging for. Ryder grabbed the door handle and tried to close it, but August was holding it open.

"You should never, ever lie to me Sasha."

"Take…a hint already" Ryder then slammed the door against August's hand. He pulled his hand back in pain, which was enough time to close the door.

"Felix, step on it!" Fiona yelled. Felix moves Rhys and the other guy out of the way and got in the drivers seat. He started the car, and drove away while August kept trying to shoot the caravan. Once they were a safe distance away, everyone wasalittle less tense. Everyone except the two Hyperion employees in their caravan.

**15 minutes later.**

"So lets start with a easy question. Where's Nisha?" Ryder was currently dangling Rhys out of the door of the caravan while it was still driving, and holding him by his tie.

"I told you, I don't know who Nisha is!"

"Hyperion set up a bounty on her head. How the hell you don't know who or where she is? There was Hyperion soldiers that came after her a few days ago."

"I'm serious. I don't know anything about that. Me and Vaughn only came down here to do the Vault Key deal."

"This is pointless. Let's just shoot them and throw them out." Sasha said.

"No, save the bullet. Trust me the fall will definitely kill them." Fiona said as she had her sleeve pistol pointed at Vaughn.

"Can you at least try and find her? With your eye or something?"

"As much as I would want to, mostly do you don't kill me, I can't. She's never been in my database."

This was bad news to Ryder. Not only was his bike gone, but his friend was also still in possible danger. He knew Nisha could take care of herself, no doubt about it. But at the same token, any large amount of people wanting the bounty could be coming after her relentlessly.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Ryder pulled Rhys back into the caravan and closed the door. "Is-can you retrack the money?"

"Maybe if you use Nakayama's ID, you can track it back into the database and not have Hyperion track us." Vaughn suggested.

"Sounds a lot like you're secretly trying to call for help."

"Oh trust me, we're not. They'll kill us if we lost this much money. In fact, even if we have it, they'll still kill us."

"How much money exactly did you lose?" Moze asked, leaning back into the booth in the caravan.

"$10 million dollars."

"Count me in."

"No way. Besides, you said you'd leave us once we dropped you off." Fiona said.

"You know how expensive it is to find working parts for a Iron Bear mech? Pretty fucking expensive."

"_Iron Bear mech? Don't tell me..." _Ryder thought to himself. "You're a Vault Hunter, aren't you?"

"Just recently, after my whole squad was wiped out in a hostile takeover."

"Guys? The money?" Rhys asked, holding a drive with Nakayama's name on it.

"You sure you're not gonna fry your brain?" Ryder asked.

"Nope, but it's the only chance we got. Besides, it's this or wander aimlessly around the desert."

Ryder put his arms up in a way as if he didn't care. "Just don't die." Rhys smirked a bit as he shoved the drive into the side of his head. He froze for a second, before shaking a bit and dropping to the floor. Everyone stared at him.

"Umm." Ryder said.

"That's…" Sasha began.

"Gotta hurt." Moze finished.

"Is he gonna...you know, not be dead?" Fiona asked Vaughn.

"Hopefully not. He did shove a crapload of data into his head." Vaughn said.

"Well, I guess while we're waiting for him to wake up…" Ryder said.

"Moze, want to tell your story a bit?

**_And we're at the end of this chapter. Took a Bit longer than I hoped, but hopefully that means it's better quality. Also wanted to add Moze to the story since borderlands 3 is coming out soon. Excited. Anyways hope you all have a good day, and until next time._**


	5. The Money Trail

**_ Well, with the quarantine upon us, and social distancing being the key to saving America, what better a time to release another chapter of a story about looting and shooting to get into a vault. No it's not a Purge fanfic, prolly on the wrong story (but I would still totally read this if I was you.) Triple upload is happening, read till the end for more information about that. Without further ado, enjoy._**

**Caravan.**

"So let me get this straight. Your entire squad of Vladof soldiers were wiped out, except you?" Fiona asked Moze, who didn't seem all that bothered reliving such a tragic event.

"Wiped out is putting it nicely, my squad was obliterated." Moze said. "I was the only survivor, along with my Iron Bear Mech."

"Well that's…pretty badass." Vaughn said, which got him looks from everyone. Before he could come up with a response, Felix stopped the van.

"Why'd we stop old man?" Ryder asked.

"There's apparently a death race happening in a old laboratory turned arena. And we're right next to it."

"Maybe I can shout you out as my sponsor, when I get my bike and money back. Right now we should be focusing on finding Nisha and the briefcase."

"That's the beauty of it." Felix said as he opened the caravan door. "This event is hosted by Bossnova, the same bandit who stole the briefcase."

"Guess we're not aimlessly wandering around the desert." Sasha brought up. She was the first to practically jump out the caravan. As everyone got out the caravan, it was Fiona and Ryder left inside with Rhys still knocked out.

"Should we bring him with us or…"

"Leave him." Fiona said. "Sleeping beauty will wake up and meet us while we scope the place out."

"Assuming his brain isn't fried." Ryder said. "Look Fiona, you and I both know this mission to steal back the money isn't gonna go the way we want it to."

"Meaning?"

"You know what I mean. It's 10 million dollars. Enough to change someone's life."

Fiona's look turned into anger, as she knew what he was eluding to. "And what are you trying to say? You're gonna take away the one chance me and Sasha have of getting off this god-forsaken planet?"

"You know I'm not gonna do that Fi. But this went from a simple four person job into a small posse event." Ryder sighed. "And you know how much I despise Felix…"

"Don't for a second suggest that Felix would betray us."

"Fi, I've met people on Elpis that killed their own friends, hell family just to avoid the war going on up there." Ryder started walking out of the van. "I'm not saying he will, but…just make sure we get out with the loot at the end."

"Right…and as soon as you get your cut, you're gone again?" Fiona asked. Ryder was silent. He knew that Fiona was gonna take this to a different topic, that being about their relationship. But Ryder wasn't for it at the moment.

"We'll…cross that bridge when we get to it. Let's just focus on getting the money." Fiona shook her head at Ryder's whole argument, but continued out of the caravan and met up with the rest of group overlooking the arena.

"Looks like my kind of crowd." Ryder interjected. He got a dirty look from both Sasha and Fiona, a confused one from Vaughn, and weird one from Moze.

"So you're no better than a psycho is what you're saying? Or…"

"Slow it down Combat boots. What we got here is a race of some sorts. Check out the vehicles." Everyone turned their attention to the modified trucks, cars, and bikes that lined up the sides of arenas. They looked around some more, when something caught Ryder's eye.

"Hey...that's my bike!" He saw someone leaning on it who wasn't Nisha, a bandit no less. He had hoped she didn't get caught by surprise and was hurt or worse.

"Ughh, what happened?" Everyone turned back to see Rhys walking out the caravan, clutching his head.

"Well while you took your nap, we decided to wander aimlessly around the desert, and here we are." Fiona said smugly.

Ryder chuckled at her comment. "Heh, cute."

"Yeah, well…wait." Rhys' eye started to glow as he looked straight at the arena. For a while.

"He's not…broken, is he?" Moze asked. Ryder shrugged his shoulders while they looked at Vaughn for an answer.

"Rhys, buddy. Tell me Nakiama's drive didn't affect nothing important." Vaughn said. Rhys looked back at everyone with some confidence.

"Alright, good news. The money is in that arena."

"Cool. So how we getting in? That eye give you any ideas?" Ryder asked. Rhys looked back around. He spotted a nearby sewer grate and looked back at everyone again.

"The sewer grate. That's our way in. And I got a plan..."

Fiona started speaking up again. "Rhys, I don't think we have time for-"

"We'll start by jumping down and into cover behind those rocks, then we'll..." After a few seconds, Rhys' plan sounded good only to himself, as everyone had gone ahead of him. They all were behind the rocks he had mentioned, but we're figuring out a way to get pass the bandit next to it.

"We could just shoot him." Sasha offered. Ryder shook his head, as did Moze.

"We do that, and a whole arena full of psychos will try turning us into leather coats and hats. I'll take him out."

"With what exactly?" Moze asked.

"Just watch and learn." Ryder walked around the rock, hood on his head as he walked towards the bandit. The bandit saw him and aimed his gun at him.

"Hey buddy! What you're doing he-no way!" The bandit yelled. "You're that famous death racer, the one who always uses a bike right?" Ryder stopped and looked surprised at the bandit. It then clicked for Sasha and Fiona that he was playing the bandit for a fool.

"Damn he's good..." Fiona said under her breath. Sasha looked over at her sister and chuckled.

"Jealous he's one upping you right now?"

"Shut up." They turned back to Ryder to see the bandit running towards the vehicle bay as he motioned for the rest of them to come to him. Of course, Rhys didn't realize anything until everyone was already far in front of him. That's when he realized he needed to stop trying to come up with overly elaborate plans, as it just turned into him monologuing to himself. He headed down to everyone else and got upset once he got there.

"You know, my plan would've worked too." Rhys said.

"Well yeah. We also would've still been talking about your plan if that was the case." Ryder said, holding the grate open. "Now everyone start heading down, I'm gonna distract these guys and see if I can buy some time."

Everyone looked confused for a second. "For us?" Sasha asked. Ryder shook his head.

"Nisha is here, I saw her talking to the bandit with my bike in tow. Only way she gets out safely and I get my bike back while you guys get the money is to join the race." He saw an immediate look of anger from Fiona, as he already expected it.

"So let me get this straight..." Fiona started. "You want us to go get the money, while you go off to save a bike and a girl?"

"Rather you join the race, risk your life, and never see the 10 million needed for you and Sasha to get off this planet?" Fiona got quiet, but Ryder knew this conversation was going to come back up again later. If he made it out the race.

"Exactly. Now let's get whoever's going down to go down before the guy gets back." Ryder held the hatch for everyone else to climb down. About a minute passed before Ryder noticed the guy starting to come back to where he originally was. After Sasha, Rhys, and Moze went down the hatch, Ryder closed it immediately to avert attention away from them. Unfortunately that left him and Fiona with the other half of the Hyperion duo they almost killed.

"Whoa buddy, you know these people?" The bandit asked.

Ryder stuttered for a minute, trying to come up with a good excuse. "Uhhh, y-yeah. Decided I had better odds at winning if I had a team with me. No problems with that, is there?"

"Mmm, shouldn't be..." The bandit then trailed off his focus from Ryder onto Vaughn. "Sorry, but I really don't like your face."

"No it's ok, I get that a lot." Vaughn replied very calmly.

"No no no, I mean like if you weren't associated with the most famous racer in Pandora, I would've pummeled your face in."

"I don't think that would be totally necessary." Everyone turned to the voice that wasn't part of the current conversation, and to Ryder's non surprise, it was Nisha. She was still in her outfit she wore when she reunited with Ryder, but the only difference was that she now had dark black boots on with a black duster. Everything else stayed the same.

Ryder smirked a bit seeing his friend ok, but still needed to figure out why Hyperion suddenly had an interest in killing her. "Nice to see you got out…with my bike."

"Relax. You're bike is fine." She then noticed the girl with the hat and some Hyperion pencil pusher. "Their with me."

"You said 3 hours ago you were going solo."

"And now…" Nisha pilled her revolver out on the bandit and aimed straight for his head. "I'm saying their part of my team."

"_This escalated really quickly." _Vaughn whispered to Fiona. She silently nodded in agreement after the Bandit gave in, surprisingly.

"Fine, Fine. We have a spare wagon anyways. The four of you will need masks to match. Got 3 unique ones." The four of them followed the bandit to a chest that had 3 bandit masks. The first one was the regular psycho mask, the second one was a more refined bandit mask that had a bloody hand print on it, and the third and final mask was what really caught Ryder's attention. It was a skull design with the top half of the mask white and in the pattern of a skull, while the lower half looked like an apocalyptic gas mask, as well as the eyes being red. Ryder knew he would look badass wearing this in general, no matter what. He had to buy it.

"How much for the third one?"

"Oh, the third one? You my friend, have an obvious eye for fashionable face wear while you run over a fellow racer. Ehhh…" The bandit looked back a forth at Ryder and the mask a few times before he spoke up again. "Usually for this big a group of racers, it would be 300 for everyone. But since you're the famous Death Rider himself, I'll say…150."

"Deal." Ryder took out the last of his pocket money and gave it to the bandit as he took one of the skull masks. It was everything he hoped for in a mask. Comfortable strapping, ability to breathe easily, kick ass look outside, and easy to see out of.

"How I look?" Ryder asked. He posed for a minute while both Fiona and Nisha looked at him.

"Hmmm. Pretty badass Ry." Nisha said. Fiona, feeling somewhat jealous, knew she had to one up Nisha comment. She thought about it for a second and got ready to say it, but realized the implications it would bring later on, so she ended up just saying he looked cool.

"Well, now that I got that out of my system, where's my bike?"

**_Yea, yea. I know, it's short. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to plan out the death race well enough to write it and make it feel impactful or at the least entertaining. So next chapter gonna be the death race. Also, this chapter is part of my TRIPLE upload that is I started yesterday with my most recent chapter of "A Spider's Fight." Check that out if you like Spider-Man, street fighter, the teen titans, and Wrench. This is the 2nd upload happening, and as for the third update…well, y'all like the wasteland? If so, keep an eye open for my new Fallout story. See y'all there and until next time._**


End file.
